To do this, the company introduced a new kind of application—the "Modern" or "Metro" style application. It created a new style of interaction—an edge-based UI for touch users, a hot-corner based one for mouse users. And it developed a new application launcher—the Start screen. Microsoft retained the familiar Windows desktop for running traditional mouse and keyboard driven Windows software.

Windows 8 worked. It was a viable operating system, and in broad strokes, it fulfilled Microsoft's dream of one operating system for tablets and PCs. But Windows 8 was far from perfect. Its problems were in three main areas.

First, the touch interface was in many ways incomplete. There was a nice touch-friendly settings app, for example, but it couldn't be used to configure most system settings. Instead, you had to use the desktop Control Panel.

Second, it did essentially nothing to marry the new touch UI to the old desktop. Both are important, and both have a role to play, but in Windows 8, the two lived in almost entirely separate worlds, with different styles of interaction, different appearances, and different capabilities.

Third, and perhaps most unforgivably, it did almost nothing to teach people how to use it. Windows 8 introduced a bunch of new concepts and new ways of using the operating system, but it didn't tell users about any of them.

This video, captured by Rafael Rivera of Within Windows, is the sum total of Windows 8's tutorial.

Most (in)famously, Windows 8 removed the Start button, a button that had been a fixture of the Windows landscape for 17 years. There was still an action that was semantically equivalent to clicking the Start button—clicking the bottom left corner of the screen—but the button itself was missing. And rather than telling new users "Hey, you have to click in the bottom left of the screen now," Microsoft left them high and dry.

On top of all this, Windows 8 suffered from the typical problem faced by new platforms: it just didn't have many "Metro" style applications that were worth a damn. Disappointingly, this included the built-in, first-party applications. Core apps such as Mail and Music were weak at best.

These poor applications compounded Windows 8's problems because they meant that there was no real incentive to learn one's way around the new operating system. The three issues above could probably be overlooked if there were a rich family of must-have Metro applications to run. But there weren't. The Windows apps that people want to use were desktop apps anyway.

As such, Windows 8's novel features were a hard sell. It required you to learn new ways of doing things, and there was no meaningful payoff. Some of the new ways were a bit better than Windows 7; others were a bit worse. For many, even though Windows 8 included plenty of desirable under-the-hood improvements and enterprise features, it wasn't worth making the switch.

On top of the new interface and applications, Windows 8 introduced one more thing: a new approach to updating software.

Microsoft's traditional approach is to produce major updates every three or so years. But the competitive landscape has shifted. iOS and Android are updated every few months. Web browsers—from Mozilla and Google, at least—are updated every six weeks. Online services in the cloud are updated on a near continuous basis.

Infrequent major updates aren't enough to enable Microsoft to keep pace with these competitors.

So Windows 8.1 is here just a year after Windows 8. This update—free to existing Windows 8 users—doesn't fundamentally alter any of the objectives or design goals of Windows 8. Microsoft still wants to have one operating system that can span tablet and PC—and, if one looks further into the future, perhaps even the smartphone, too. But Windows 8.1 is nonetheless a surprisingly substantial update to Windows. It rounds off many of Windows 8's rough edges, providing a more coherent, better-designed working environment.

A tour around Windows 8.1’s refreshed user interface

Windows 8.1 looks a lot like Windows 8, but it's Windows 8 with a lot of spit and polish. The improvements start right at the lock screen. In addition to the previous swipe down to unlock, you can now swipe up to get instant access to the camera app.

The basic concept of the Start screen is unchanged from Windows 8. The differences are in the details.

More personal

The Start screen was always meant to be personal, with the live tiles (and hence, updates) that you care about placed most prominently. Windows 8's attitude toward this personal nature was, however, inconsistent. It didn't respect the user's ownership of the Start screen. Any time you install a new app on Windows 8, its tiles get put on the Start screen automatically. For desktop apps, this could result in dozens of tiles being spewed across the screen that you then have to tidy up manually.

In Windows 8.1, the Start screen is squarely the user's. OK, there are a bunch of default live tiles for new accounts, but beyond those, the tiles are up to the user. Installing software won't dump a mess of tiles everywhere.

Those tiles that you do put on the Start screen pick up a couple of extra sizes. Windows 8 had just two sizes: the half-width square and full-width rectangle. Windows 8.1 adds a smaller square for high-density app launching and a large double-height square for showing more information.

A bunch of new background images for the Start screen have been added. Some of these are simple static images that have the same kind of parallax scrolling effect as in Windows 8. Others are more exciting, with animations and movement. Windows on a cityscape light up periodically, robots fly around, and cogs spin as you scroll.

There's also a new option to use the same background behind the Start screen as you have on the desktop. This apparently small change has a surprisingly profound effect on the feel of the operating system. If you use desktop applications (whether exclusively or in conjunction with Metro ones), the shared background makes the Start screen—and by extension, the Metro world—feel like it's actually related to the desktop and not a completely alien addition.

Case in point: the info is there it's presented in a different way. Technically there's no reason it couldn't be presented in two separate ways. You can't slide amongst applications and see their recently used files though I'll admit that's not a use case I often use.

That's NOT a case in point. You said there were abilities missing. What you're talking about now is you not knowing how to access those features. Jump lists were introduced in Windows 7. This isn't something new with Windows 8.

Quote:

As for the recently-used list, etc. Anything that requires you to tell me a key command that makes my life easier is a fail for Microsoft. Recent files populate right at the top of my Start menu and also specifically for each app. One little action (clicking a button that's been there for 17 years) was the springboard to interacting with the entire computer. Now, I've got to learn several key shortcuts to do the same.

Which is NOT the same as being unable to do something. I'll agree it can be hard to learn new things! I'm with you. But you can't claim that you're unable to do things, and then go "well, I can do them, but they have to be done differently." Those are not equivalent statement.

Quote:

I'm sure that if I bothered to learn all the various shortcuts I'd be a power user and I might like Windows 8 just fine. However, my objection is and remains that any experienced user shouldn't require a Quick Start guide or a list of key commands to replicate common interface requirements.

That was NOT your objection (or at least not the one I replied to). Your objection was, and I quote: "The problem lies in making changes in an effort to support touch that removed abilities that have been available in their software for 17+ years.

Your words. Complaining about learning new things? Totally valid criticism. Complaining about them "removing abilities" is not the same thing though. Complain about having to relearn the system all day! But if you say that they're removing abilities, you should be able to back that up with abilities that have been removed.

Quote:

You may think I'm an idiot for not wanting to spend the time/effort to learn these things. I never have. I have no desire to start now. More so, the average user in a business environment has enough trouble with the distinction between 'copy' and 'cut.' Such a drastic change to the UI is deadly for these users (which outnumber power users probably 100:1).

The discoverability of the OS is what's been lost and replaced with a "you just need to know how to make it work to make it work" ethos. That's what I was referring to in my post about abilities lost.

I don't think you're an idiot. I just think you need to ensure rather than saying Microsoft has REmoved abilities, you need to complain that they moved them. They moved, not removed, a bunch of things you were used to. I myself happen to like trying new things enough that this doesn't phase me, but I'm not you. I can't tell you you're wrong for not liking change. That's your call. I will, however, ask people to specify when they say things have been removed, because there is a lot of false info out there.

I'm sure there's a keyboard shortcut or a command line prompt or Regedit change to make just about anything happen.

I guess we have a semantic difference here. When I say I've lost the ability to do something I mean I've lost the ability to do something the way I have done it for years on end. While yes, there are certainly new ways to do all the things I can no longer do the way I've been doing them they're not the same way.

If there was a technically valid reason why they can't be done the same way I'll understand. Vista broke display drivers - but for a good reason. We all suffered for a couple of years until things returned to normal.

But the change to a 'Metro' interface and dropping of the Start menu was simply a money grab by Microsoft hoping to cash in on a Windows Store. There's absolutely no technical reason why they can't continue to do things the same exact way in the desktop mode as they used to. And if I have a mouse and keyboard attached why doesn't Windows 8 automatically boot into desktop mode?

You can tell me to learn the new way and it'll be fine. I agree the alternative mechanisms are all fine. But they're new for the sake of being new or for the sake of trying to capture tablet marketshare.

It's like my comment earlier on putting the ignition key for a car on the left side of the steering column (for Americans). Sure, it would still start the car but no mainstream car maker in their right mind would do that for fear of alienating their user base.

Getting rid of the Start menu and forcing desktop users in a Metro interface for any reason is little more than moving the key to the left just because they could.

Just awesome. I just updated my Windows 8 VM, which I have for testing purposes, to 8.1. I do not have a touchscreen, but for some reason Windows 8.1 detects my VM as "limited touch support". So now of course Windows 8.1 tries to be helpful, and whenever I go to a Metro app (like e.g. the Windows Store), I get a tutorial overlay on the left side of the screen on how to switch between apps, which ONLY goes away when I manage to SWIPE FROM THE LEFT SIDE. Which I can't. I cannot click it away with the mouse, ESC key does nothing and I have not found yet any option to DISABLE these tutorial thingies. So I always have that tutorial thing there until I *reboot* the VM. And then it comes back whenever I open a metro app.

Well played, Microsoft. Well played.

Anybody have any idea how to kill this notification in a VM (VMware Workstation 9)?

Just awesome. I just updated my Windows 8 VM, which I have for testing purposes, to 8.1. I do not have a touchscreen, but for some reason Windows 8.1 detects my VM as "limited touch support". So now of course Windows 8.1 tries to be helpful, and whenever I go to a Metro app (like e.g. the Windows Store), I get a tutorial overlay on the left side of the screen on how to switch between apps, which ONLY goes away when I manage to SWIPE FROM THE LEFT SIDE. Which I can't. I cannot click it away with the mouse, ESC key does nothing and I have not found yet any option to DISABLE these tutorial thingies. So I always have that tutorial thing there until I *reboot* the VM. And then it comes back whenever I open a metro app.

Well played, Microsoft. Well played.

Anybody have any idea how to kill this notification in a VM (VMware Workstation 9)?

Just awesome. I just updated my Windows 8 VM, which I have for testing purposes, to 8.1. I do not have a touchscreen, but for some reason Windows 8.1 detects my VM as "limited touch support". So now of course Windows 8.1 tries to be helpful, and whenever I go to a Metro app (like e.g. the Windows Store), I get a tutorial overlay on the left side of the screen on how to switch between apps, which ONLY goes away when I manage to SWIPE FROM THE LEFT SIDE. Which I can't. I cannot click it away with the mouse, ESC key does nothing and I have not found yet any option to DISABLE these tutorial thingies. So I always have that tutorial thing there until I *reboot* the VM. And then it comes back whenever I open a metro app.

Well played, Microsoft. Well played.

Anybody have any idea how to kill this notification in a VM (VMware Workstation 9)?

Lol. And the AOLification of MS continues. It's like a Golden Retriever that keeps jumping on your lap when you're trying to get to second base with Holly Willoughby. Dumber than a bag of hammers, but oh-so earnest.

Just awesome. I just updated my Windows 8 VM, which I have for testing purposes, to 8.1. I do not have a touchscreen, but for some reason Windows 8.1 detects my VM as "limited touch support". So now of course Windows 8.1 tries to be helpful, and whenever I go to a Metro app (like e.g. the Windows Store), I get a tutorial overlay on the left side of the screen on how to switch between apps, which ONLY goes away when I manage to SWIPE FROM THE LEFT SIDE. Which I can't. I cannot click it away with the mouse, ESC key does nothing and I have not found yet any option to DISABLE these tutorial thingies. So I always have that tutorial thing there until I *reboot* the VM. And then it comes back whenever I open a metro app.

Well played, Microsoft. Well played.

Anybody have any idea how to kill this notification in a VM (VMware Workstation 9)?

Well, it was kind of easy to fix. Of course it did not help that the first thing I did was to disable the corner navigation :-)

Re-enabling that and then clicking the upper left corner of the screen killed that tutorial (would have helped though if they just mentioned the MOUSE alternative in the tutorial hint, too). Now let's see what they come up with next.

Guess you better switch, because future versions of Windows will have the Metro/Desktop environments. If anything the Metro environment will be improved to the point where you will no longer need to use the desktop for anything, and that is Microsoft's end goal, getting rid of the desktop environment. It may not happen for years to come but it will happen.

Also worth adding that the start screen causes you to lose focus (or at least, visibility) of the open application(s). For many scenarios (referring to environment variables to type into Run window, looking at tutorials, copying information, etc) this can be a big deal.

It's not as if you can't work around these issues, but they shouldn't have needed workarounds in the first place.

The run window is a window on the desktop. You can't see other desktop windows while you are in the process of typing "run [enter]," but you can see other desktop windows as soon as the run window opens. So when you're typing in the run window, you can see the rest of the desktop.

I'm sure that if I bothered to learn all the various shortcuts I'd be a power user and I might like Windows 8 just fine. However, my objection is and remains that any experienced user shouldn't require a Quick Start guide or a list of key commands to replicate common interface requirements.

Except, by your own admission, you aren't an experienced user. You've barely scratched the surface of Windows 7 because you don't want to touch the keyboard? This is like driving a car in first gear because you don't want to learn how the clutch works.

Hey, it's certainly possible to drive a car around the city in first gear, as long as you don't mind going slow and ignoring most of the functionality of your machine. But don't expect car manufacturers to cater to you with next years model.

But the change to a 'Metro' interface and dropping of the Start menu was simply a money grab by Microsoft hoping to cash in on a Windows Store.

You know, I often hear this, but nobody ever stops to question it. Revenue estimates for the app store in 2011 were that it only made $60-110 million dollars profit from the app store per quarter. Microsoft made $5 billion in a quarter, even with a massive write-down. That's 55.6 million dollars a day.

To put that another way-- Microsoft, in all likelihood, surpasses the amount of money Apple makes in the App store in an entire year in less than 10 days. The app store profit as a share of Apple or Microsoft's revenue is INCREDIBLY TINY.

The idea that Microsoft would risk EVERYTHING for the meager profits that an app store makes is simply ridiculous. Not to mention the fact that app store revenue is going to decline as paid apps go free means that Microsoft is LESS LIKELY to make nearly as much money as Apple, even if their store takes off. Microsoft wants an app store for a number of reasons-- certainly the money doesn't hurt-- but to suggest that it is somehow a company that sells $20 billion dollars of software, hardware, and services in a single quarter ($100 billion a year) is going to be swayed by the $500 million or so they could make from an app store is...well, it strains the brain. It's a blip on the radar. What matters is whether it can sell OTHER things.

I'm sure that if I bothered to learn all the various shortcuts I'd be a power user and I might like Windows 8 just fine. However, my objection is and remains that any experienced user shouldn't require a Quick Start guide or a list of key commands to replicate common interface requirements.

Except, by your own admission, you aren't an experienced user. You've barely scratched the surface of Windows 7 because you don't want to touch the keyboard? This is like driving a car in first gear because you don't want to learn how the clutch works.

Hey, it's certainly possible to drive a car around the city in first gear, as long as you don't mind going slow and ignoring most of the functionality of your machine. But don't expect car manufacturers to cater to you with next years model.

No, I'm certainly not a power user. Outside of Win-E and Win-R I don't use short cuts.

And you know what? I'm a more experienced user than 99% of the Windows customer base.

edit: I am certainly an experienced user but not a power user. I use computers all day every day but I'm not an IT type. Computers are a tool to get a job done. They're not the job.

I am seriously blown away by all the people saying absurd versions of "I shouldn't have to learn anything new to upgrade to Windows 8".

God forbid anyone should have to invest any time at all in learning a handful of basic facts about the latest version of software. Or even better, that they should have to learn how to use functionality that has already been there for years but that they never bothered to actually learn how to use in their previous version.

"Don't go putting no new fangled 'print' icon on some fancy menu bar! Clicking on File -> Print was good enough for me in Windows 3.1, so it's good enough for me now goldurn it!"

The store is a tiny part of it; win8 is touch-first because tablet marketshare is growing while traditional computing proportionally shrinks. You all probably have relatives who ONLY use an ipad-- I have several. MS saw the writing on the wall several years too late. They made an aggressive move to leverage their traditional desktop users to get a foothold in the touch market. They had to. As a traditional desktop user myself it stinks but I've got to admit-- they were RIGHT to.

That's why windows RT exists. MS knew damn well that bay trail atoms would be out in Q4 2013. Intel shares their roadmaps. But MS didn't want to give up that 18 month window, so they released the surface RT and windows RT knowing full well that windows on ARM was very likely a dead product. They had to. They couldn't wait almost 2 years to compete with the ipad and (lately) android. Gotta pay to play.

New win8.1 touch devices with power-sipping haswell chips or bay trail atoms will be completely awesome in 2014. They'll run all your old windows programs AND the touch-preferred apps AND get 10 hours of battery life to boot. With broadwell in late 2014, we'll get another 30% battery life jump and a xbox360-quality GPU that'll play all those 2012 and earlier games in your Steam library. In a 1.5lb mobile device with a high-DPI screen 10+ hours of battery life! You want to compete with apple, that's what it takes.

As for win8.1, it fixes my largest complaint about 8.0, the totally bonkers separate search. My main remaining complaint isn't a big deal, but I'd like to see the taskbar in the start screen. Beyond that, you know, win8.1 is fine on desktop. It's nothing special. Win8.0 was basically fine too. Not worth an upgrade, nothing nipple-tinglingly exciting, but it works well enough.

Last year you described windows 8 as a "solid desktop experience" and now you say it's "actually works". That's confusing, because it sounds like you're rewriting to the past to be "didn't actually work" last year, but your review from last year was mostly positive for windows 8 on the desktop.

I didn't write the subheading.

I think Windows 8 works well. I think Windows 8.1 makes some straightforward steps to make it work better.

I am seriously blown away by all the people saying absurd versions of "I shouldn't have to learn anything new to upgrade to Windows 8".

God forbid anyone should have to invest any time at all in learning a handful of basic facts about the latest version of software. Or even better, that they should have to learn how to use functionality that has already been there for years but that they never bothered to actually learn how to use in their previous version.

"Don't go putting no new fangled 'print' icon on some fancy menu bar! Clicking on File -> Print was good enough for me in Windows 3.1, so it's good enough for me now goldurn it!"

Why are you blown away? Windows XP was the main MS consumer product for TEN YEARS.

If Microsoft had produced a fancy new tutorial then you would have a good point. But you don't.

Here's a thought experiment. You are a basic non-technical user. You bought a new non-touch PC with Windows 8 on it. You don't read Ars, or otherwise even know that an OS refresh was coming out. The salesman didn't show you anything about the new OS and you're booting it up for the first time. Now what?

If you're writing an e-mail, you can switch to the contact picker (provided by the People app) to let you populate the "to:" field from your contacts. It's logical to want to be able to search your long list of contacts to find the address you want—but the Search charm directs the search to the app (that is, Mail) rather than the picker. Technically, Microsoft could have changed this behavior to allow search to be directed at pickers, but it hasn't.

Last year you described windows 8 as a "solid desktop experience" and now you say it's "actually works". That's confusing, because it sounds like you're rewriting to the past to be "didn't actually work" last year, but your review from last year was mostly positive for windows 8 on the desktop.

I didn't write the subheading.

I think Windows 8 works well. I think Windows 8.1 makes some straightforward steps to make it work better.

You should just play it safe with the taglines and use something we can all agree on like:

"A fundamental principle of design since at least the days of Don Norman is that the device should show you how to operate it. If you have to be taught the mystery and then hold that knowledge in your head, the design failed.

You are a basic non-technical user. You bought a new non-touch PC with Windows 8 on it. You don't read Ars, or otherwise even know that an OS refresh was coming out. The salesman didn't show you anything about the new OS and you're booting it up for the first time. Now what?

The brief win8.0 tutorial was enough for a user paying attention. But it played once, and people forgot, or they never saw it in the first place as they weren't present at the first boot. The problem with win8.0 is that it was completely non-discoverable. If you didn't see that tutorial and weren't technically sophisticated you were completely lost in the woods. The new start button mostly fixes that, and the new win8.1 tutorials NEVER go away until you follow their instructions.

For a system administratosr it should be less tedious to work with windows 8 than 7 especially with the win+R key.

Absolutely, I've found Windows 8.1 to be a vastly superior experience to Windows 7 on the desktop. But then I'm a sysadmin, spend most of my life with multiple Powershell windows open and dip in and out of notepad for fancy tasks. I'm probably not one of these "power users" who couldn't possibly cope with the OS changes.

It's also amusing to constantly hear how this is all some conspiracy to kill off the traditional desktop environment, when I personally have noticed huge changes for the better there. And even more so in the command line.

What's with all the comments about respect for trying new things and that you should be willing to learn new things as Microsoft pushes them and so on? It's a business and a commercial product. They might be entitled to respect for research, but not for selling a new product to users (that is not doing so well). You are not bound to Microsoft, and you don't have to learn to like their product. You are paying them, and when they stop providing a service as you like it, you should stop. That's how it works.

The comments about "just stick to Win7" are ridiculous too. If you're a professional, if you're building a system that's larger than a home computer, if you're buying software licenses, if you're developing anything, you're entitled to worry about the future direction of your operating system.

If you seriously hate Win8, consider looking into alternative operating systems as an investment. It's what Valve is doing. Microsoft is a detestable monopoly to support overall, I haven't heard of people having much brand loyalty here, so it should be a non-issue. If you actually hate the UX change that much, just take your business elsewhere, best case scenario it's the thing you can do to make Microsoft listen (see XBox One DRM). But realistically probably few people are willing to go that far.

So as you're using MS products, you might be interested in a review of new updates that they add rather than returning to the original argument for using their products.

The subheading "Not perfect, but 8.1 is an OS that actually works for desktop, mobile" is very silly after insisting 8 works in the first place. I wonder if there was ever any chance of the alternative verdict.

I am seriously blown away by all the people saying absurd versions of "I shouldn't have to learn anything new to upgrade to Windows 8".

God forbid anyone should have to invest any time at all in learning a handful of basic facts about the latest version of software. Or even better, that they should have to learn how to use functionality that has already been there for years but that they never bothered to actually learn how to use in their previous version.

"Don't go putting no new fangled 'print' icon on some fancy menu bar! Clicking on File -> Print was good enough for me in Windows 3.1, so it's good enough for me now goldurn it!"

Why are you blown away? Windows XP was the main MS consumer product for TEN YEARS.

If Microsoft had produced a fancy new tutorial then you would have a good point. But you don't.

Here's a thought experiment. You are a basic non-technical user. You bought a new non-touch PC with Windows 8 on it. You don't read Ars, or otherwise even know that an OS refresh was coming out. The salesman didn't show you anything about the new OS and you're booting it up for the first time. Now what?

I see these users several times every week. They're terribly frustrated that they can't find their email, can't figure out how to do things now that all the buttons are gone, and they are having a terrible time with the only browser they can find.

I charge them $25 for installing a start menu, Firefox and adblockplus, change the default photo viewer, kill off the trial AV scanner-spam-crap and activate Defender.....and they love me.

Check out the open box deals on laptops at Best Buy....they have tons of them at every store. I think I know why.

I'd say one year hasn't changed anything. We still have the same abomination of an OS, desperately trying to push Windows Store and touch features where they make no sense at all, and the same people saying that there's nothing wrong with it and we just don't like change.

Nice as multi-head setups are, if I had to guess I would think it's most likely to be less than 1% of all Windows users worldwide. If anyone can either prove or disprove this with accurate worldwide user statistics, I would be most grateful.

Whilst still a minority of overall Windows users, it still represents a massive number of people worldwide. I know that personally I've seen more and more uptake of multi-monitor configurations for office workers over the last few years, mostly because it was a cheaper option than buying a single large, more expensive, flat panel display.

Here's a thought experiment. You are a basic non-technical user. You bought a new non-touch PC with Windows 8 on it. You don't read Ars, or otherwise even know that an OS refresh was coming out. The salesman didn't show you anything about the new OS and you're booting it up for the first time. Now what?

Well, first off, Windows 8 pretty much walks you through the baby steps of getting set up with internet etc.

Then, I dunno, wouldn't it be awesome if there was some sort of global network, like some sort of web maybe that was world wide, where you could look up information on stuff? Like maybe it could have lots of tutorials and help documents and tips and hints and stuff.

I mean, it's not like it boots up to a flashing command prompt. It's pretty glaring obvious how to do basic operations like looking up answers to any questions you might have.

I still couldn't care less about "improvements" to a touch interface on a fucking desktop OS.

I'm sorry, I just can't manage to care at all. At the end of the day, the users I support are still going to hate this, and I'm going to hate it worse by having to support it.

Microsoft is going to have to face it... for business users in particular, it doesn't matter what they do to improve the touch interface. They could make it the best-designed touch UI ever. But on enterprise desktop computers, it still boils down to being a whole bunch of stuff on which they spent a lot of effort, that users really just want out of their way so they can do their work in a simple, traditional desktop paradigm.

This is still just lipstick on a pig.

The enterprise is moving away from desktops, in case you hadn't noticed. And in a world where users are used to touch interfaces from their tablets at home, having an OS that they can use in full touch mode when they're out of office or dock at the office for the desktop world is going to be supremely useful in the long run. Windows 8.1 is getting there. Most offices that issue iPads or other tablets to their employees still have them using laptops or desktops most of the time. If Microsoft can cut the other tablet out with something like the Surface Pro, I'd call that a win for them. And users.

Sorry but my clients (accountants, financial analysts, web designers, software designers, musicians, video editors, researchers, etc) absolutely do NOT want tablets or touch interfaces on the this MAIN machine. The only clients that have liked the idea are (real) estate agents and even they only use tablets when out in the field.

Excel is absolutely hopeless with podgy fingers and try designing a website with a tablet. What about a Powerpoint presentation? Write reports for a living using a touch screen? Ha!.

Touch is fine when the data is already collated but putting anything together requires a lot more finesse and precision than fat fingers can manage.

I'm not totally against touch. I have a couple of tablets, a desktop and a laptop and they're all go-to devices for certain tasks but never, ever have I gone to a tablet if I really need to 'create' anything of substance. My clients (who actually do stuff other than emailing each other) appear to agree with me.

I guess we have a semantic difference here. When I say I've lost the ability to do something I mean I've lost the ability to do something the way I have done it for years on end. While yes, there are certainly new ways to do all the things I can no longer do the way I've been doing them they're not the same way.

How would you've have felt about paying $40 for the upgrade if absolutely nothing had changed? Or at least nothing visual? Why would you ever upgrade if you literally couldn't tell the difference?

If there was a technically valid reason why they can't be done the same way I'll understand. Vista broke display drivers - but for a good reason. We all suffered for a couple of years until things returned to normal.

Doesn't "it's better" count as a technically valid reason? Of course you can (and doubtless will) argue about whether any given change is or isn't better in the long run (in the short term it's an inevitable "Who moved my cheese?" moment) but that's somewhat besides the point. Improving the UI in any way, shape or form has to involve changing it and that means learning the new way to do it. That new way may take a while to get used to, but it may overall work out better and may be far more obvious to those who hadn't spent time learning the old way.

It's like my comment earlier on putting the ignition key for a car on the left side of the steering column (for Americans). Sure, it would still start the car but no mainstream car maker in their right mind would do that for fear of alienating their user base.

Sometimes the right approach is the disruptive one and the companies that fail to see that and take action are the ones that disappear. You only have to look at RIM and the fall of Blackberry to see how dangerous it is to ignore shifts in your core market. Whether Windows 8 is the right solution is something that remains to be seen, but one thing that is clear is that a failure to anticipate and provide for the changing IT infrastructure is a road to failure.

now i see why Peter Bright is promoting windows 8/8.1 so much in the comments he made the article (coming from page 4 on the main site not forums) paid by MS? (sorry)

this is basicly what i come to when users try and use windows 8 its very frustrating (again my fix is to install startisback as i do not want my customer ringing me up every day when they get stuck on a blnk RT app)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ujmDrcKWo8

Peter Bright i think you're missing the point on why windows 8 is partly a fail, windows RT should be for Phones and Tablets (for the most part Only)and windows 8 for normal computers (with optional RT layout for apps)

as apple as they are not stupid they did it the correct waythey have OSX for apple computers, they slowly added a app store but you can ignore as it does not affect the user experience at all if you do not use it, it is just there to use and even then does not get in your faceand IOS for iPad and iPhone (and other misc devices like ipod)

you target your market not force it down everyone's throat as microsoft has done with windows 8/RT

as apple as they are not stupid they did it the correct waythey have OSX for apple computers, they slowly added a app store but you can ignore as it does not affect the user experience at all if you do not use it, it is just there to use and even then does not get in your faceand IOS for iPad and iPhone (and other misc devices like ipod)

you target your market not force it down everyone's throat as microsoft has done with windows 8/RT

about this product that you hate so much but the Windows Store also has no effect the desktop user experience at all. This is even more true in 8.1 now that you never have to actually see the Start screen. Ever.